FORTY YEARS ago this month, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, was found dead of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at his home in Corte Madera. Like his lover, Janis Joplin, and fellow rock icons Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, he was 27.

In his memory, Grateful Dead legends Bob Weir and Phil Lesh reminisced about their dearly departed bandmate March 13 night on "Weir Here," the new live music and talk show that's webcast weekly from Weir's TRI Studios in San Rafael.

"This has rarely if ever happened — the two of them talking about their history in public," said TRI President Chris McCutcheon, the show's producer. "I think this is a first."

Lesh and Weir opened the online evening singing and playing a couple of songs together on acoustic guitar and bass. It was also something that doesn't happen every day.

"The only time that Bob and Phil have done a duet is when they guest starred on 'The View' talk show a couple of years ago," McCutcheon said.

In the "on the couch" segment of the show, the two old friends were joined in their remembrances of the hard drinking Pigpen by "Big" Steve Parish, Jerry Garcia's trusted roadie, and David Lemieux, the band's music archivist. In his role as talk show host, Weir slipped on a sports coat and sat behind a desk with a vintage microphone on it and a coffee mug jammed with pencils.

"When I started on the road with the Grateful Dead, the new guy always had to room with Pigpen first," Parish recalled, noting that Pigpen's drinks of choice were Rainier Ale (aka "Green Death") and Southern Comfort. "Pig liked to party. If you could get through that, you made it to a new level in the Grateful Dead's inner circle."

"I went to jail just for rooming with Pigpen," Weir chimed in as the studio audience roared with laughter.

The upside, Parish said, was that "when you roomed with him, he'd break out his Martin guitar and play the blues in his cowboy boots, underwear and corduroy cowboy hat."

As is customary on the show, the group took questions from viewers that Parish read off a large video monitor of Twitter and Facebook feeds. One Deadhead wanted to know what they thought the band would have been like if Pigpen, who played keyboards and harmonica and sang like a born bluesman, hadn't given up the ghost so soon.

The Grateful Dead were never a show-bizzy band, but everyone agreed that there was a lot more audience interaction when Pigpen was onstage.

"He sold some dude the Brooklyn Bridge one night," Weir cracked.

Parish recounted Pigpen's self-appointed role during concerts as romantic matchmaker for Deadheads in the crowd.

"He'd pick out a girl and a guy in the front row and make them hug and kiss while he was singing to them," he recalled. "He'd say to the guy, 'Quit playing pocket pool and go out and buy that girl a refrigerator.' I think he put a couple of people together who are probably still married."

In Joplin, Pigpen found a flame with whom he could not only belt the blues but enjoy other passionate pursuits as well. Lesh wondered if the line in the Grateful Dead song, "Looks Like Rain," that goes, "Did you ever waken to the sound of street cats making love?" referred to Pigpen and Janis.

According to Weir, there's no doubt about it. He told a story about the time the band lived communally in an old summer camp in Forest Knolls.

"I was living in a room next door to Pigpen, and the walls were thin plywood, almost like cardboard," he said. "When Janis came over, I didn't get a lot of sleep."

Parish thought back to the old Pepperland ballroom in San Rafael and the star-crossed couple singing Pigpen's signature song, "Lovelight."

"They had a rapport that was all their own, and you guys were just backing them up," he told Weir and Lesh.

Since Pigpen was the theme of the show, Lemieux used the occasion to announce a major upcoming release of some long-lost recordings of Pigpen with the Dead at shows in the fall of 1969 and the winter of 1970.

The ex-wife of a former roadie recently turned them in after they had been missing for four decades, he explained. Rhino Entertainment is set to release them on April 8 as "Dave's Picks 6," a three-CD set.

"They are historically important and excellent recordings," Lemieux said. "Pigpen is all over them."

In passing, he also mentioned that there are some home recordings in the vault that Pigpen made in his final days. He titled them "Last Will and Testament."

"The day before he died, we brought his organ up to his house," Parish remembered. "He was in great spirits. I cherish that day with him."